Johannesburg - The board of the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) has requested an urgent meeting with the African National Congress amid growing calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down following the damning Constitutional Court ruling about upgrades to his Nkandla home last week.

"The board has directed a request to the governing party for an urgent meeting to discuss these issues. It is time for South Africans to settle for nothing less than the dream Nelson Mandela demonstrated is achievable. All South Africans are the custodians of it," the foundation said in a statement.

The board had held its own urgent meeting on Friday night to discuss the situation.

In the last week, the country has seen mounting pressure for Zuma to resign, not only from opposition parties but from ANC veterans, party members and some branches, civil society and religious bodies.

Nkandla upgrades

The NMF board said it understood the public sentiment behind the calls for Zuma's removal, and that there were issues that needed attention but added that SA had already experienced a presidential recall which failed to deliver strategies required to address the "systemic imperative".

"Our country's crisis of leadership is not restricted to the summits of power. The reach of our constitutional democracy stretches across the entire nation. We need good, accountable leadership in Parliament, in all tiers of government, the civil service, business, schools, unions, political parties, universities, churches, hospitals, communities, NGOs and so on.

"And, of course, in our presidency, the first enabler, protector, and defender of the common good embodied in our country's constitution," the foundation said.

The Constitutional Court last week ruled that Zuma had defied the Constitution when he chose to ignore the remedial actions by the Public Protector which required him to pay back a portion of taxpayer funds that were used for upgrades at his Nkandla homestead.

The Public Protector found that Zuma had unduly benefited from the upgrades when other renovations, besides security features, were done at his home. These included a chicken run, a cattle kraal, a swimming pool, amphitheatre and a visitors' centre.

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